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Most Disappointing Game of the Year
Publisher: Origin Systems Developer: Origin Systems Review "Ascension isn't likely to win over anyone who doesn't already cherish the series, because even in spite of its many positive traits, it's a game whose ambitious design ultimately caves in upon itself due to the game's inconsistent quality and many technical problems." - Greg Kasavin, GameSpot review Several long years in development and immeasurable prerelease hype didn't save the final game in Origin Systems' 20-year-old role-playing game series, which was rushed to shelves prematurely during the holiday season. Many Ultima fans were outraged by the game's poor performance with many common 3D-graphics accelerator cards, while others experienced show-stopping bugs such as corrupted saved games, unpredictable crashes, and broken, unsolvable quests. Only the most passionate or compassionate Ultima fan could forgive the state in which Ascension shipped. It didn't take long for Origin to publicly apologize for the game's broken condition and to issue a couple of big patches that resolved a lot, but certainly not all, of the game's technical problems. However, even without all the bugs bringing it down, Ultima IX: Ascension is marred by laughable voice acting, terrible combat, and tedious pacing. Die-hard fans of Ultima are quick to overlook the game's flaws and point out how it stays very true to the nature of the popular series, just as it features a long quest and a beautiful 3D environment. And furthermore, Origin promises to ship the patched version of the game to all registered users. However, such apologies still don't change the fact that Ultima IX: Ascension dashed a lot of high hopes. Nominees: Civilization: Call to Power Diplomacy Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine Worst Game of the Year
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